Onto white cardstock cut to size (2-1/2" x 3-1/2"), the birds in flight and bird word border were stamped first with Archival Ink in Jet Black. The wings were stamped next with Distress Antique Linen, then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The balance of the ATC was sponged with various Distress Inks using a Blending Tool.

November 15, 2008

My friend Stevie hosted a holiday ATC (Artist Trading Card) swap, and I created mine using one of Tim Holtz's techniques. These were created assembly-line style, meaning I did all the steps at once for all 16 ATC's. Here's the directions!

Step two: background. Using three Distress hues smear them onto a non-stick craft sheet, spritz with water using a Mini Mister, then drop each white cardstock ATC into the wet colors, spinning it around. Heat set and repeat spinning & drying until look is achieved.

Step three: Mist each ATC with a mini mister of water and about 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of Perfect Pearls Perfect Sparkle This will make the inked cardstock sparkle like glistening snow! See how to do this on Tim's blog here. Iron flat with a craft iron.

October 15, 2008

Today's post is quick - I'm off to a field trip with my son's third grade class.

This is my Artist Trading Card (ATC) swap my good friend Stevie is having. For those unfamiliar with an ATC they are tiny - 2-1/2" x 3-1/2".

'secrets' was computer generated; all edges were sponged playfully with Tim's Antique Linen and/or Vintage Photo Distress inks. I really wanted to put a flower under the mica - kinda like a 'sub rosa' thang but it just didn't work....

Message bottle, fleur de lis brad, 7gypsies papers and ribbon - all available at StarLitStudio. Mica is from USArtQuest. I love mica accents!

March 15, 2008

The inchworm and apple card that I promised will have to wait. I gotta show you guys this ATC. My friend Stevie has ATC swaps every few months. No product restrictions, the theme was 'spring'.

So I came up with these!

I hate to iron clothes, but love to iron cardstock!!!!

The rest of this post is how I made these, so if you are gonna stop reading now I hope you have a great rest of the weekend and hope to see you here tomorrow!!

How I did these ATC's: Fire up your craft iron (wanted to start out with that, because it makes me sound like I'm giving you a cooking recipe, like 'set oven to 350 - lol) and cut your ATC's (2-1/2" x 3-1/2") from 7gypsies Cantania paper. If you are saying "Good GRIEF she is using that paper again!" well guys I am so in love with this paper, mostly because it comes already looking old and aged so half of the work is already done... :) The French script I love, but can't read, so for all I know it could be some raunchy stuff... :-D

Stamp 'see the flowers smiling' (Hero Arts) onto dusty pink mulberry paper using black waterproof ink (Archival Jet Black from Ranger). Using an aquapainter or a clean paintbrush and water, paint around the sentiment and gently pull mulberry paper apart (it's fun - reminds me of pulling cotton candy apart - yum!). Set aside. Thread vintage shell buttons with tan linen thread and set aside. It is harder than it looks. Requires thread to be cut on a slant. Sometimes more than once. One button per ATC.

Now, the really fun and messy part starts! Get a worksurface and get some Glimmer Mist. I used Black Cherry and Aspen Yellow (from Eclectic Paperie!). My worksurface is a 18x24 piece of thick matboard that has seen better days but in some ways is attractive (like me in the morning!) To describe the matboard, think of what the floor would look like after a half dozen three and four-year-olds played unsupervised with 50 bottles of Glimmer Mist. Well that is what my matboard looks like!

I placed two Bounty paper towels on top of the worksurface to absorb some of the Glimmer Mist and went to town. First I sprayed them all over with a few hits of the Aspen Yellow, then I hit them from the right side only (very important) with one good spray (or two not so good sprays) of the Black Cherry.

I decided that was not enough color variation for the look I wanted, so I took a mini-mister and put a whole dropper full of Distress Brushed Corduroy reinker and about 1/8 tsp. of gold Perfect Pearls. Filled the mister about 3/4 full (gotta leave room for the stuff to shake, shake, shake!) with water and shook it up real good. I spritzed this solution in areas that needed to be a bit darker. Your ATC's will curl due to all that liquid combined with the thin nature of the Catania paper, but we'll take care of that in a minute.

Now if you are wondering why I asked you to waste electricity by firing up your craft iron, now is the time! I don't have room for (or rather, I don't want to waste the time to fetch) an ironing board in my craft area, so I improvise:

Take an old cotton placemat (and yes, mine is splattered with ink and glimmer mist and soldering flux and something orange from what I don't remember, but hey - it ain't a placemat no more! It's a work cloth...) and spread that out on your counter top. Then cover it with one of Tim's craft sheets. They are heat resistant in addition to being totally non-stick (even superglue won't stick). I'd love to find this stuff by the yard and cover my tables with it...

Anyway, presto! Instant ironing board!

On top of the craft sheet I placed two more Bounty towels, placed an ATC face down, and ironed. Repeat for all ATC's.

The ironing did three things: it dried the Glimmer Mist right away, it flattened the ATC nice and neat, and......(drumroll)....it re-heats the clear embossing powder and melts it onto the Bounty towel! This removes any trace of the shiny powder that acted as a barrier to all the Glimmer Mist you attacked it with. :) :) :)

And if you are like me and saw this for the first time, I'd be asking you, "how did you do that?!"

tag sale! like new goodies

about this blog:

There are many artists that produce detailed blog posts offering lengthy videos with voice-over, and often include complete written instructions with countless photos. These artists are paid to create these blog posts by business owners in the crafting realm in money or product or both.

I am not one of those artists.

Blog posts are created here randomly, when the mood strikes, using my preferred products and tools.

Life doesn't come with instructions and if it did, I wouldn't follow them anyway.